October 19-22

Hello Families!
How nice it has been to meet with so many of you during parent-teacher conferences this week! It is truly a privilege for me to teach your children and work alongside you on our journey this year.

Here's a peek at our week:
In Writer's Workshop each of our writers selected a small moment piece that they are particularly proud of. We spent the bulk of the week revising these pieces by using all that we have learned about writing small moment pieces and bringing them to life. We even had a chance to view video clips of two authors sharing about their writing process. They revise ALL THE TIME!

We found out that author Kate Messner continues to revise
 her books even after they've been published!

We loved hearing all about Mo Willems' writing process!

 We also explored books and found craft moves that we would like to try in our own writing. We worked with a partner and put a post-it note at places where the author did something to really bring his/her story to life!

Next week we'll continue revising our pieces. We'll also use our checklists to edit our work and set goals for ourselves as writers. Finally, we'll share our work with others and receive feedback.

In Reader's Workshop we continue to add to our tool box of strategies for solving tricky words. We also took some time to visit retelling with a focus on characters and problem/solution. Rohan helped to retell Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny by walking the Yellow Brick Road! Ask your first grader to tell you all about it!

We learned about bullying this week by discussing what it is, what to do if we are being bullied, if we see others being bullied, and if we ARE the bully. Ask your first grader to tell you about each of these.

The pamphlets were sent home with your first grader.

Last week we were assessed on the first four weeks of word wall words, and we were reassessed on any gaps in our knowledge of our K5 words. Any words that we are having difficulty reading or spelling were written on a 3X5 card and put in a baggie. Now we can practice these when we arrive in the morning and when we come to our guided reading groups. 

During Math Workshop, we're learning addition strategies to help us with our fact fluency. We are also spending time really getting to know how to explain our mathematical thinking in writing. This can be tricky, but we're really working hard!

Next Week's Word Wall Words:

or    one     had     by    put

Until then...

Michelle Mullen

Mark Your Calendars:

*The first and third Fridays of the month are Stormonth Spirit Wear days!

October 28th: Early Release Day

October 28th: Parent/Teacher Conferences

October 30th: Costume Parade & Classroom Celebration

November 11th & 25th: Early Release Days

November 24th: Music Performance
November 26th & 27th:
Thanksgiving Holiday

December 9th: Early Release Day

December 23rd-January 3rd: Winter Break